Hole in the Head

October 24, 2007

Dear Kay,
Clif came home last night, announcing he was DONE with his hat. Which I didn’t even know he was making. He’s off squirreled away at school, making hats. Apparently the second graders knit all day long. So relieved that they’ve done away with all those tedious math worksheets.
He showed me how done he was:
Like, a half inch left. Knitting down to the last drop. He hadn’t exactly decreased along the way, and I knew he didn’t want to get a tube top out of this thing, so we rigged up a drawstring and ended up with
70 stitches drawn up into some kind of an oculus or a smokehole or a peephole so I can see inside his head.
David, resident style consultant, weighed in, said the hat needed another inch or two.
“Ah, I can pick up and add a brim,” Clif said.
Love,
Ann

Impressive hat, Clif! I wish my daughter’s school would do away with those tedious 2nd grade math worksheets (and the tedious correcting of the tedious math worksheets that we parent volunteers have to do!)

Jo-Anne
October 24, 2007 at 12:58 pm

Maybe they could do away with the grade nine science worksheets too, involving intricate math fractions. I couldn’t do them in grade nine. I can’t help teenage daughter figure them out now, nearly 40 years later.
Awesome hat, by the way.

Anji Harris
October 24, 2007 at 1:33 pm

No don’t add a brim it looks very stylish the way it is.

Alyson
October 24, 2007 at 2:24 pm

WHAH! Everybody else’s boys are knitting except MINE! Where or where have I gone wrong???

I so need a hat that allows me to see into my kids’ heads. I also need a school I can send them off to and have them come home with hats they made themselves! (This homeschooling thing is getting to be a bit much.)
Great job, brim or no.

Clif, you are my kind of knitter! You can totally pick up and knit a brim. Also: awesome orange hat!

Mary Kay
October 24, 2007 at 3:45 pm

A hole in the head, but what a head, on a second grader yet! PICK UP to add a brim, indeed!
Good going, Ann. I regret being too busy to teach my son to cross stitch that eagle I was working on when he was 9 or 10.

Clif’s at a scrumptious age, still a little boy with the manual dexterity to be able to knit his own gorgeous hat. I’ll bet you even get to hug him. I miss my little boy now that he’s a grown up man of 28. Fabulous hat, gorgeous kid with all the confidence in the world. Great job, Mom!

The hat is perfect the way it is!
I wish my boys still knit. But at 14 and 19, not so much. Enjoy while you can!

JO ANN
October 24, 2007 at 4:04 pm

I so wish my school would let kids and teachers knit hats with holes in the tops for airing out the brain after 2nd grade math worksheets! There is more problem solving in that hat than in worksheets.
J.

Karla
October 24, 2007 at 4:22 pm

How amazing that your sons knit! I’m on the search for a fiber-loving hubby. .thinking maybe that will increase the odds of having a wonderful knitting family like yours some day.

Love knitting – especially by boys.
And yes, all tedious math work that needs to be administered by parents (volunteers or otherwise) should be abolished and replaced by knitting. Says the woman who just spent the hour after kids bedtime examining 50 (yes FIFTY) algebra word probs that are part of a sixth graders test prep review. Apparently the teacher doesn’t really check the homework, so the feedback comes from the tests.
Yikes! So I volunteered to help my own boy prepare for the algebra test but we’d both rather be knitting. He’s on his 24th “log” of a lovely log cabin blanket! Yes I’m proud – a knitting boy in advanced math!

Ok, two questions:
1. WHERE on earth is this school that has knitting instead of lessons… ?
because, I have a teaching degree and have actually taught 2nd and 3rd grade and I’d love to work there.
2. Where is this other school where the parent volunteers grade the MATH (and I assume other types?) worksheets? I want to work at that school.. hey, maybe they could be combined together?
I’d like this very much– because.. every time I’ve taught children how to knit.. ‘it had to be done AFTER SCHOOL’.. and, I’ve been grading my own worksheets.. EVERY NIGHT AND EVERY WEEKEND..
ALL I can say is: I’ve been gipped!

Oh, that’s great! You must be tickled inside. I can’t wait for my 4 yr old daughter to start knitting. She wants to. She has her own needles, and there is PLENTY of yarn around here! Just waiting for her to aquire some patience!
Love the hat as is! Great job!

Stephanie B.
October 25, 2007 at 9:57 am

Awesome. And you found a way to get “oculous” into general conversation. Wow.

oh my. I’m with Amber. What is there to say?
you obviously have amazing, clever and terribly attractive children. kudos to your classroom teacher and school.
As a new gr.11-12 chem teacher here in Canada there have been many lessons where all I wanted to do was say:
okay guys, screw stoichiometry, today we’re learning about yarn.